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tv   Breaking the Set  RT  April 23, 2013 2:29am-3:00am EDT

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in february a band of prisoners at guantanamo bay began a hunger strike according to u.s. officials eighty four prisoners are on hunger strike currently sixteen of them are being force fed while five already been hospitalized and a recent new york times column one guantanamo detainee who's been there for eleven years without trial gave a harrowing personal account of his experience and says quote i will never forget the first time they passed the feeding tube out my nose i can't describe how painful it is to be force fed this way i wanted to vomit but i couldn't i had never experienced such pain before i would not wish this cruel punishment on anyone for many of the detainees who are starving themselves are of the eighty six prisoners who've already been cleared for release but they haven't been permitted to leave so to break down what hope these prisoners do have of walking free again i'm joined
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now by colonel morris davis former chief prosecutor at one time in prison thank you so much for coming out pleasure so you were the chief prosecutor for the military tribunals act one tunnel and you resigned in two thousand and seven why well at that point guantanamo has been open for about five years we've yet to conduct would be done one trial which is david hicks which had been fixed you know by dick cheney and john howard in australia and i was being pressured by people above me that said president bush said we don't torture so who are you to say that we do and all the evidence we obtained by torture you need to be using a trial and to me that's just fundamentally un-american and i quit while speaking of torture let's talk about the hunger strike i mean the u.n. has labeled force feeding of prisoners a method of torture. how is it that the u.s. can have total disregard for international law in this regard that we're really good at preaching to others about their behavior but not very good at practicing ourselves so you know we condemn other countries for doing things that. that we do
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so we just ignore the un you know there was a report recently on drone strikes there was one about the waterboarding and torture in the past and now this one about guantanamo and we just tend to ignore it but the u.s. is kind of in a damned if you do damned if you don't position if they let the detainees starve themselves to death in the oh my god the detainees are dying if they force feed them then they're condemned for abusing them physically so it's a no win situation because we've created this legal black hole where we let people sit for over a decade and just abandon them. you've said quote president obama doesn't have the balls to close get now to make it very clear for our viewers who are saying that obama can't do this is hands are tied could obama singlehandedly close down this facility if he wanted to he's the commander in chief and he was very impassioned last week about the gun bill would be nice to see a little that passion for guantanamo because i was one of the promises he made in two thousand and eight in the first thing he did after the lilly ledbetter act in two thousand and nine when he took office was signed the order to close guantanamo
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it at the time the democrats controlled the house and the senate now certainly the right wingers the wing nuts have made it hard for him to close guantanamo down but he had kind of that sweet heart period where had he really been committed he could have done it he let the opportunity pass well certainly it was one of his main the main pillar of his talking points when he was in the two thousand election i mean we wanted to see that close you know to play politics in a time like that when you're putting so many human lives at risk of not having a fair trial is really frankly unacceptable to me what forces are keeping the camera open right now other than i guess the most extreme right wingers who are calling to keep it open let's primarily it i mean what's in it for the u.s. we commit about sixteen hundred troops to guard one hundred sixty six people at a time when we're trying to draw down forces and do more with less you so recently general kelly the commander of south com told congress and he's an extra quarter of a billion dollars to rehab. guantanamo to keep it open on top of one hundred twenty
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million dollars a year we spend just on operating costs so we're spending about twenty eight times more per person to keep him in guantanamo then we do in federal prison we've sought her credibility in the around the world you know china just came out the human rights report that condemns the u.s. for guantanamo russia putin just recently barred some officials from traveling to travel to russia that included a couple of commanders from guantanamo so we other countries about their human rights record and they can consistently say what about guantanamo so that there's nothing in it i mean legally we've been trying for almost eleven years now to get these people into court more people have died it kuantan a modena been convicted kuantan of the ones that have been convicted the d.c. circuit court of appeals a federal court here in washington has overturned the conviction saying they're not legitimate law for offenses so and so say what the upside is to keeping guantanamo open other than some talking points for the right wingers who want to look like they're tough on terrorism and as i have to mention the dry boarding those those
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quote suicides that are really presumed to be actual murders in that sense but let's talk about these talking points that we do here to justify keeping the prison open i mean over half of these prisoners are already cleared for release. but we hear that other countries won't take them there's no way to try them i mean there's some of this rhetoric what's the real truth here well essentially the bulk of the ones that have been cleared i mean these are people that the cia department of justice f.b.i. department of defense of said we've reviewed their cases they're not a threat to the u.s. and we don't want to keep them but they sitting guantanamo because of their citizenship and most are from yemen and our argument is we don't trust the unity government to be responsible for but that's the same government we said the unity government gives us permission to conduct drone strikes and kill people so on one hand we trust the human a government to let us kill people but we don't trust the many government to take their own citizens back so basically the administration seems to have no real interest in shutting this down as you just said that we've authorized millions.
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dollars to expand it and keep it in place what we supposed to do to help these prisoners who are killing themselves right now to get their message across it's unfortunate that it takes those kind of drastic steps to get people to pay attention when you spend a decade of your life in confinement because your citizenship i've got a petition coming out on change dot org i'm working with them and with the witness against torture to put up a petition to encourage president obama to remember what he promised five years ago and to keep his word and to close guantanamo less in this black hole that we've had for over a decade and because this has been so politically bad for bush and then obama even though people seem to have forgotten that he said that he was in a closet it seems like the u.s. is now opting to just kill suspected militants abroad instead of capturing them i mean is this just the new policy because of how bad this detention facility has kind of been a scar on the administration well it's been a hopefully that's not a policy i mean if the u.s. has gotten to the point where killing people is easier than confining as i said
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commentary lately the last couple of cases like the boston bombers can be held in federal confinement prosecuted in federal court. bin laden's son in law being held in federal prison prosecuted in federal court who. we had to promise you know the u.k. our closest ally in order for them to extradite him to the u.s. for trial we had to promise two things we wouldn't take him to guantanamo and prosecute him in a military commission so it's kind of a statement about what our allies think about guantanamo certainly not a popular facility and definitely to see a close thank you so much for coming out being vocal against colonel morris davis appreciate your time. last week was a whirlwind of breaking news from the boston bombings the dramatic. the alleged
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suspect but then a disturbing development emerged the suspect nineteen year old joe hart. would not be read his miranda rights as part of the fifth amendment public safety exception the problem with this is that the exception doesn't actually legally fit the suspect and for those of you who have no idea what miranda rights are the rights read to every person who's arrested in the u.s. media aftermath of the suspects detention certain elected officials quickly took to the internet to offer their two cents on how to treat the suspect south carolina senator lindsey graham said quote the last thing we may want to do is read boston suspect miranda rights telling him to quote remain silent and then followed up by saying if captured i hope administration will least consider holding the boston suspect as enemy combatant for intelligence gathering purposes some state representatives took the sentiment even further calling actually torture the suspect new york state senator gregg paul wrote sos scumbag number two in custody
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who wouldn't want to use torture on this punk to save more lives. i wouldn't and no one else that actually respects the rule of law and the constitution because guess what torture is illegal and it's never brought proper intel now it may not seem like that big of a deal to read a terrorist suspect his rights but ponder what glenn greenwald has said he said quote when you cheer for the erosion of joe hart rights you're cheering for the erosion of your own which is what we're already seen a mindset that has already allowed these rights to be taken for granted and compromised two years ago obama bypass congress to roll back miranda rights for quote terrorism suspects exploiting the already narrow public exception to the law and not instant obama basically eliminated the fifth amendment guarantee that you won't incriminate yourself during interrogation without knowing your rights and the
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fact that all of this is going on with virtually no public outcry signifies just how complacent we've become whether it be toward the patriot act or the end of two thousand and twelve or just look at obama's drone wars when no due process is given to all of these suspected militants being killed and you think about it that way it becomes more apparent that if you're determined guilty in the court of public opinion then you'll never be presumed innocent in a court of law. now if you like you say so far stay tuned to hear the latest breakdown from this week's media madness following the boston bombings with former f.b.i. translators developments coming up next. wealthy british scientists. spent time. on.
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mars. why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max kaiser for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our.
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america international and world in the very heart of moscow. much
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much more of this is yours if you just received anything like to cut cut. cut . guys it's been a crazy week with lots of misinformation misreporting and misunderstandings over the complexities of the boston bombing case and every time a new fact emerges it leaves me with more questions than answers so help me gain some insight earlier i was joined by the bell admins boiling frogs post and founder national security whistleblowers coalition i first asked her if after a decade of civil liberties or regimes we should be surprised at all to the call to suspend the suspects rights and here's what she had to say. not. being climbing up the ladders towards the police to stay in fact he had been. operating within the all the police sustained characteristics you look at it from the illegal eavesdropping to the illegal detentions to go on to patriot
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act to now says i mean it's just been going on more and it's been going up we're relentlessly let's talk about these suspects and how the f.b.i. alleges they found them which was through crowd source photos and then a video captured from a department store what does that say about the surveillance state in general that's not making us any safer and it can't prevent things like this from happening . right but more than dad first of all it shows the you know activeness but by saying that i don't want to validate all this contradicting. the false information that's been pouring from the government and the u.s. mainstream media so i have been trying to keep the two separate because that's exactly what the government wants and that is americans do concentrate on that fear factor and that terror instead i have been looking through my website two of the
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articles and analysis you have been putting out there on the ability of information period and that. it is why we have been hearing what we have been reading what we have been watching all the mainstream media and a lot of that was i alternate media in terms of the facts surrounding the this latest incident in boston well let's talk about what the facts are that they do alone that they have the f.b.i. alleges that they have a video showing the suspects dropping their backpack and slowly walking away yet we've been shielded from seeing the video that supposedly the unequivocal link proving their guilt i mean why do you think this is. well as i asked the size before i keep emphasizing three words and that is conflict in contradicting and also false information because if you start putting all the information that is. or again right now you will see that for example later f.b.i.
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came out and they said that ok they got this information from the foreign government now be now that our nation was russia in mid to late two thousand and eleven then we look have the information coming out from people who knew the suspects and they are talking about three to five years period so that doesn't add up in terms of f.b.i. claiming that these people were placed on their radar once they got that intelligence tip from the russian government so that is false and if it is false why is it false oh you are also i have been reading carefully and i know she has some problem with language but the suspects mother is talking about this ongoing relationship for three to five years and she's describing some of the conversations for example on one hand the government people calling the others that they are you
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know that they are decent and they are who people and then turning around and saying what we are watching you and you can eventually has a lot of that. sounds just like classy challenges community recruitment approach which you would see is the same thing with that confession you know how the two suspects and they separate them and they go to one and they want one to basically testify against another they say well you know what you committed to be no you didn't mean bad and on the other hand you can be facing thirty years in jail this is how they get people suspects to talk and this is a police department as well so data itself is very very interesting and the other thing that nobody's talking about is whether the previous relationship between the so-called suspects and the government u.s. government what is really the f.b.i.
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because from what i'm gathering from the people i speak with and these are retired veteran and. agents it is not within their m.o. and sounds more like the agency question actually was the cia the cia has been carrying out operations in that region in russia caucuses also central asia but this area and chechnya and i want to get into that specifically which is what you just wrote about on boiling frogs. post but i wanted to also talk about the reaction and of course what you're saying you know it is a lot of questions remain about this case and i just hate to see so many people bloodless trying to demand that these people's rights are taken away i mean what happened innocent till proven guilty i mean let's see the proof we're the ones who sponsored the spectacle the media spectacle in the military spectacle that we have the right to see the evidence that they allege they have but let's talk about the
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the military shut down of boston i mean in the hunt for these two suspects they shut down the city told people not to leave their homes employed thousands of police as well as paramilitary troops was armored takes on the streets and on top of that israeli police were shipped in to even help investigations the belt was all of this merited to find one man. as the old no you won't be yours you yourself now that it didn't these actually provided the opportunity or some create an opportunity for the government to test in washington law. scenarios which they have to be a game beyond the two words and this is what we have been doing as a government since nine eleven and this is what exactly the have been doing b. has been put in place everything to get to back state and unfortunately the reaction from the majority boss the people mentally complying people by fear
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factor say yes come a search for our house without any warrants or locked down our city or shut down our stores it gets really scary you see well i guess the government has already proved that the americans and the country is ready for the next stage and for me that is this aspect of the you know this simple left liberties that the freedom that be used to have this those of the state of those freedoms to day and where the next next day is because i believe he has already approached. the reaction of this so complacent with this military style crackdown and shutdown of the city i mean really shows the establishment so excited about justifying their militarization of local police forces over the last decade perpetuating these wars for profit saying look terrorism is a real threat and this is like you said i mean it's almost like practice for what's
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going to happen when a bigger real of or i'm not saying that this isn't real but what it's about happened when something bigger happens on our soil and that's really something that we should be questioning but let's let's move on to your article that you wrote the interesting twist of course is that these two brothers are chargin kind of doesn't fit into that whole narrative that we've been hearing but as you just outlined u.s. operations have been grooming terrorists for a while in that region i mean outline what the u.s. has been doing to foster this kind of extremism in chechnya and why. i can tell you from firsthand experience that information because a lot of people or people who know me most the most of those people know that i have been gagged and stay secrets privilege has been invoked in my case multiple times the biggest reason or as they say has privilege had to do with the operations and investigations and documents that i became aware of that covered the time
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period nine hundred ninety six till two thousand and two this is about every two thousand and two that the out with u.s. operations in that region central asia and caucuses both u.s. yeah but also with nato and through proxy nations and one of them are partner nato quite narrow turkey and this has been in effect says the fall of the soviet union but of be american government through our military cia operations military operations be have been creating army training drafting various factions within the region central asia caucasus and that includes the the area and darkest time a lot of weapons that gets to be shipped to turkey is shipped there with the intention they call it false and user start to get the recipient may appear as
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charity but actually it weapons are smuggled then taken to the rebels in chechnya other islamic factions within the central asian increase because the spanish can stand and they can be have been doing this since mid one nine hundred ninety s. i know that the russian government is fully aware of this in fact if you look at the news from russia i have even a turkey even some of the european countries but you never get to see those here within the u.s. mainstream media charter. about when the russian operations to capture or kill some of these radicals or their rabble zur whatever you want to call them until recently our nation called them the freedom fighters as the when john dean is in afghanistan but the chance of those rebels they recover far passports and some of those people are part of the military in turkey so this information has been out what it has been consistent blackout of this information in the united states when the u.s.
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mainstream media are idle recently and they are still there is a check a lobby group is called the american chechens american friends that was established by if you look at the names of the people who are all in this lobby and operate this lobby you're looking at james woolsey from the former cia director you're looking at people like bruce jackson former military intelligence officer and their later their presidents are u.s. committee on nato you're looking at frank gaffney you're looking at richard perle the infamous richard perle people like michael ledeen you look at is not even a nation ok this is part of russia this is russian territory and they established this large flashy lobby group for chechnya i mean people should stop and say why the former director of the cia and lot of the what is this that chechnya well this
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is again what you have been doing our government has been doing to has intentions of doing even more in that region and now lo and behold with the mainstream media out of a blue star the american public gets a year and the war is chechnya and the caucuses and now the hot terror sounds being there it is just amazing to witness that on fall when we have known about this or nearly twenty years since like that's the trend of ellen you know one. terrorists is another government's freedom fighters when they know how to use them to their political advantage thank you so much for coming on breaking down some of the rhetoric and just some of the background of this really complex issue so bill admin's thanks so much. well that's it for today's show guys but before i go i want to give a special shout out to mother earth because today is international earth day the forty third year of the international community has taken a single day to acknowledge the importance of environmental conservation look guys
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all the problems among us humans in the world distracts us from the entity that we're all connected to the planet environment should not be politicized and it's up to all of us to speak up on behalf of the land because it can't speak for itself without what nature provides and we have nothing don't go outside. the world around us let nature remind you why the earth is so important to protect and what that said how to make.
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sure. that you take three. three. three. three. three. download free brown video for your media project free medio down to our t.v. dot com. little.
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internationally at the very heart of moscow. the boston marathon bombing suspect reportedly names his brother as the mastermind while rejecting any links to terrorist cells supporting a series of this was homegrown u.s. terrorism. sixty thousand people signed an online petition for the u.k.
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to give asylum to obgyn interpreters left at the mercy of a bench for the taliban after working alongside british forces. and china and america trade a scathing human rights reports with beijing laying out just why washington isn't fit to preach morality to the wild. international news live from moscow this is assy with me. hello and welcome to the program the surviving suspect in last week's boston bombings has reportedly admitted he was involved in the blasts which killed three people and left almost two hundred injured some of us music lanes nineteen year old john hartson i have.

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